This Is My Father's World

Golden sunsets, brilliantly colored leaves, late-night campfires, cozy flannel blankets, apple picking, pumpkin spice... it's time to welcome in my favorite season!

If you have followed my blog for any amount of time, then you know how much I love autumn - perhaps because this is my favorite season for writing. I always feel especially inspired when that first gust of FALL sweeps over the prairie leaving gold and crimson leaves in its wake. The colors, the scents, the tastes... there is nothing about this season that I don't enjoy. 

While riding my horse out in the pasture a few days ago, I took a moment to look out over the country surrounding my home and let myself stare in wonder at the sinking sun. Maybe there is something different about observing creation when you are a creative person yourself. Rather than simply marveling at a job well done, I look at God's masterpiece and wonder how He managed to pull it off. The wanna-be painter in me schemes the best way to imitate a grove of maple trees in acrylics. My writer's heart smells campfire smoke and hears laughter and wonders how to capture that feeling on a piece of paper. 

​Now, surrounded by living colors and a palpable sense of change on the wind, I want to gasp out loud at the pure beauty of it. It leaves me feeling so incapable, so inadequate, so awestruck. Only one thought ever crosses my mind in a moment like that - 

This is all the proof I need for a Creator. 

My Father's world leaves me so in awe of His glory. I can't even count the number of times I have stood out in the middle of a pasture surrounded by wildflowers, or stared up at the endless expanse of stars in the nighttime sky, and been left with an incredible assurance of my Savior's power and an overwhelming realization of His goodness. Then I remember - the same hand that crafted this breathtaking world crafted me as well. 

His gift leaves me eager to give something back. The love I have to offer Him seems so very feeble in return, and yet He accepts it and not only does he accept it, He wants it. I am His most precious, intricate, and beloved creation. 

Try thinking about that for a long moment. Now walk away discouraged or afraid... I dare you. Because I can't

  "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"  (Mathew 6:28-30)